Pirates/MLB category, Page 184

With MLB’s lowest payroll at a reported $54 million for 2020, the Pittsburgh Pirates have only 10 players scheduled to make more than $1 million this season. An economic proposal from baseball’s owners, as reported by USA Today, would require the team’s highest-paid players like pitcher Chris Archer, right fielder...

Former Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Jung Ho Kang received a one-year suspension from the Korean Baseball Organization on Monday for his three drunken driving arrests. The 33-year-old Kang also was ordered to complete 300 hours of community service during a hearing on Monday, which he did not attend because he...

As the 30 MLB team owners and the players union bicker over how to divvy up the revenue in a potential 2020 season, at least they are projecting to have some cash hitting the books. Ticket revenue and concessions accounted for 30-40% of the $10.7 billion MLB made last season,...

I feel like Dante in the movie “Clerks.” “I’m not even supposed to be here today!” Yeah, this was supposed to be an off day. Extend the holiday weekend a bit. But I got a call from one of our editors last night, asking if I’d be willing to do...

New releases available on-demand from your couch rather than on the big screen. Takeout-only dining. No-contact deliveries. Curbside pickup for wine. They’re all signs of the times — a way for businesses pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic to keep open their doors and continue paying employees. Count sports among the...

With the baseball season in limbo because of the covid-19 pandemic, Pittsburgh Pirates president Travis Williams announced Thursday afternoon that the ballclub will be instituting furloughs to business operations employees, beginning June 1. “The impact of the coronavirus has been felt by everyone within our community and our industry. The...

While exploring the prospect of major sports events returning to Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf put his foot in his mouth. Even while wearing a facemask. Yup, for this guy, that’s possible. Apparently, Wolf isn’t satisfied telling Pittsburgh’s quarterback whether he can get his haircut. He’s also telling Pittsburgh fans whether...

Derek Shelton joked that proposed MLB safety guidelines will force him to buy bench coach Don Kelly a pair of Air Pods to communicate and they will have to eliminate pickoff plays. But in a guest appearance 93.7 FM on Wednesday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Pirates manager called MLB’s 67-page proposal...

Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Kevin Kramer underwent surgery on his right hip last week and is expected to miss four to six months. The procedure, performed by Dr. Marc Philippon in Vail, Colo., was “a labral repair to address recent and chronic symptoms that prohibited Kramer from continuing his training in...

This week’s “U mad, bro?” hits on the Pittsburgh Steelers, Penguins and Pirates alike. So all the Pittsburgh pro sports fan bases can be satisfied with those who are unsatisfied! We look for balance here at “Breakfast With Benz,” and we aim to please. Or agitate. Whatever comes first. It...

The Pittsburgh Pirates are teaming with Topps and cops. Pirates Charities, the Topps Company and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Officers are combining to launch a baseball card program to encourage positive youth behavior. The cards, designed by Topps, will feature Pirates players and City of Pittsburgh Police officers. They...

Former Pittsburgh Pirates star outfielder Starling Marte announced his wife, Noelia, died of a heart attack. Marte posted a photo of the two together at the Grand Canyon on his Instagram and Twitter accounts Monday night, with the following caption, translated from Spanish: “Today I go through the great pain...

After spending time in intensive care last week battling the coronavirus, Shaler native Art Howe returned to his Houston home Sunday and said he is “feeling a little bit better.” Howe, 73, was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as a 24-year-old in 1971, and played second base and third base...

The Pittsburgh Pirates unveiled on Monday T-shirts with the Jolly Roger logo wearing a red bandana as a face mask that will be sold to raise funds for coronavirus relief efforts. In a news release, the Pirates said the modified logo was designed to promote safe social health practices, and...

Blake Snell is afraid. In case you never heard of Snell, he is a 27-year-old pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays. In a Twitch stream Wednesday night, he said, “I should not be getting paid half of what I’m getting paid because the season’s cut in half.” That’s what the...

A shortened baseball season could be enticing to Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Josh Bell, who is coming off an All-Star season with career bests with 37 home runs and 116 RBIs. MLB submitted to the players’ union a proposal with an 82-game schedule with regional matchups, which would pit the...

An excited Rick Eckstein pulled Josh Bell into the batting cages at Pirate City early in 2019 spring training, sharing a vision he had for the Pirates slugger: Thirty home runs and 100 RBIs. Eckstein, in his first season as Pirates hitting coach, believed Bell was on the verge of...

When Derek Shelton joked he talks with Don Kelly “about 80 times a day,” the Pittsburgh Pirates manager added it was “kind of half jokingly.” As the Pirates bench coach, Kelly is not only Shelton’s right-hand man and a trusted confidant but in charge of running a second spring training...

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in an appearance on CNN on Thursday night that not playing a baseball season would be “devastating” for teams, and that losses could approach $4 billion. Manfred made the comments during an interview on CNN Global Town Hall with Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta,...

For nearly 70 years, baseball has been tied to Ken Macha. At age 69, the former Major Leaguer is still coaching with Westmoreland County Community College. His path on the diamond saw him roam as far as Venezuela, Montreal and Japan. But it so often threaded its way back through...

The MLB labor dispute that erupted from a health crisis is reminiscent of “Breaking Bad”: No sympathetic figures are to be found anywhere. The owners are employing distasteful opportunism by trying to shame the players into revenue-sharing, however temporary. That is a de facto salary cap, and the players would...

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Dunkin’ Donuts are celebrating National Hospital Week by providing breakfast to seven Allegheny Health Network hospitals this week. Together, they are donating 25 dozen donuts to hospital workers to support front-line workers amid the covid-19 crisis, starting Tuesday at Allegheny General and West Penn hospitals, Wednesday...

Now that the MLB proposal to play this summer has been presented to the MLB Players Association, it’s worth taking a look at how it affects the Pittsburgh Pirates. Granted, it’s far from a done deal. Where there will be a fight over financials and health protocols, many of the...

I’m not one who likes to compare big-time sports to everyday life. Matters of salaries and collective bargaining agreements and billions of dollars of revenue crop up quite a bit in professional athletics. When that happens, tune in to a sports talk radio show and invariably “Joe Working Class Hero”...